Grace

Often we think of Sabbath as Sunday. In fact, traditionally, Sunday is the Day of the Lord and sundown Friday to sundown Saturday remains the Sabbath time. Recently I went to Shabbat service at Kol Ami to experience the beginning of Sabbath, a dedicated time of reflecting on giving our lives and all there is to God. Going to a Jewish service is a little unnerving as it is generally in Hebrew, however, the Siddur (what would be like a hymnal) is written in Hebrew and English. It also has the transliteration so you can follow along. Whew! That allowed me to sort of keep up.
When I entered the Narthex to join Kol Ami during Shabbat, I was a little nervous. After all, I know what we think when new people come and visit us! Often it is “Hooray!” How odd would it be to become the new person aga...

pigtails and freckles
playing in the rain
creating a world beyond
in the world
gathering flowers
for soup and pine cones
for bread and
planning nothing
present to the threshold
of water and light
of darkness and breath
of alone and communion
seeing
really seeing the boy
who lives across
the way in a ramshackle home
noticing beautiful skin
a smooth cocoa
noticing all the colors
are across the way
not here or there
but in the disheveled
and disturbed and
distressed across the way
dropping the soup
and bread and
screaming unfair
flailing fists at ghosts
picking up a rod
and a staff and
striding into
the blaze

amazing grace
i was blind, but now i see
the message of amazing
grace
that calls to me from
where?
that building on the corner
with the pretty windows?
that one with the
sign board outside?
that edifice over there
with the golden columns?
no.
closer.
(c) 2010 T. Stewart
Lenten Reflection
I will make with them a covenant of peace;
it shall be an everlasting covenant with them,
and I will multiply them, and put my sanctuary among them forever.
My dwelling shall be with them;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the LORD,
who make Israel holy,
when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever.
-Ezekiel 37:26-28
Thoughts
I will put my sanctuary among them forever.
It is I, the Lord, who makes Israel holy, when my sanctuary s...